When is submitting recommendation letters too late

[deleted445355]

I'm asking for a letter of recommendation from my pre-med advisor and he said that he can get my rec in by August 1st since there are other people lined up before me. However, I know that schools like Columbia, U Chicago, Wash U and, and Cornell start giving out interview invites mid-July. Would I be at a disadvantage if my rec is submitted later than others? Will this impact my prospects for admissions? I will have my AMCAS and secondaries completed in by then, only the recs won't be there.

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[compstomper]

I'm asking for a letter of recommendation from my pre-med advisor and he said that he can get my rec in by August 1st since there are other people lined up before me. However, I know that schools like Columbia, U Chicago, Wash U and, and Cornell start giving out interview invites mid-July. Would I be at a disadvantage if my rec is submitted later than others? Will this impact my prospects for admissions? I will have my AMCAS and secondaries completed in by then, only the recs won't be there.

It will most definitely impact your chances for admissions. Your letter of recommendation is considered a part of a package, in addition to your MCAT score and grades. At most if not all schools, your application will not even be looked at if it's not complete. So it would be a shame if you have completed everything and you're only waiting on one LOR from a premed advisor.

If this letter is not essential, as in, if the advisor is not a professor that you've taken classes from before, my advice is for you to submit everything on day one (early June), so that your application is among one of the first ones to be considered.

 

[deleted445355]

I've heard that it looks back if you don't get a letter from your premed committee if your school offers it. However, my premed advisor said that he told schools that just because you don't get a letter doesn't mean they don't endorse you. With this in mind, would it be okay if I just skip out on the committee letter so that I can meet the deadlines?

 

[deleted445355]

I'm going coo coo today

 

[Boolean]

Wait a minute...now we be speakin' pirate too?

me be goin' coo coo today

Seems like a site wide filter.

 

[deleted445355]

me be goin' coo coo today

What the hell. I typed "I'm going crazy today" and the post spitted out "Me going crazy." Something is clearly wrong

 

[compstomper]

me've heard that it looks back if you don't get a letter from yer premed committee if yer school offers it. However, my premed advisor said that he told schools that just because you don't get a letter doesn't mean they don't endorse you. wit this in mind, would it be okay if me just skip out on the committee letter so that me can meet the deadlines?

It's definitely a trade off. Some schools will require an explanation from you as to why you chose not to use a committee LOR. But what you gain is that your application is reviewed much earlier. I personally didn't use a committee letter because I wasn't a science major and wasn't eligible for one at my undergrad, but I think this helped my application as I got mine in within the first 5 minutes of AMCAS opening.

I would suggest you PM one of the adcom members that visit this forum, (LizzyM, goro, etc.) as they would know how big of a trade off it is, and if an explanation saying that you wanted to submit your app early would be a sufficient excuse.

 

[terp720]

this happened to me..
If you get your AMCAS app in early and are verified early, then the only remaining part of your app will be your letters. If they are in by August 1st, that will make you complete at schools early August (assuming you already got the secondary and submitted it).
That's still a good timeline to be on..

me be askin' for a letter of recommendation from my pre-med advisor and he said that he can get my rec in by August 1st since thar be other people lined up before me. However, me know that schools like Columbia, U Chicago, Wash U and, and Cornell start givin' out interview invites mid-July. Would me be at a disadvantage if my rec be submitted later than others? Will this impact my prospects for admissions? me will have my AMCAS and secondaries completed in by then, only the recs won't be thar.

 

[deleted445355]

Hi terp720,

Did you apply to schools that give out interviews mid-July? I looked on MD apps and multiple people had to had their secondaries completed by early July in order to get an interview offer mid-July. I suspect that submitting in August diminishes my chances then.

 

[Lya]

Hi terp720,

Did you apply to schools that give out interviews mid-July? I looked on MD apps and multiple people had to had their secondaries completed by early July in order to get an interview offer mid-July. I suspect that submitting in August diminishes my chances then.

More or less, you are correct. Although there are certainly people getting accepted with late applications, relatively speaking, your chance will diminish a little bit.

There will be questions in secondaries, if I remember correctly, regarding whether you have a pre-med committee and why you did not use their service. If you feel you have a good reason for it, I don't think you necessarily have to go through the pre-med committee. There were a few posts I remember where people were doing just fine without using their pre-med committees at their home institutions.

 

[deleted445355]

My premed advisor says that it would be unfair to have my application take priority over others after I expressed this concern with him. So it's going to be August 1st regardless of how much advocating I do. While some schools that send out interviews early in mid-July don't say they require a premed committee letter, others highly recommend it (Yale) and U Chicago and Vanderbilt require that you have one and if you don't, you need a good explanation for why you don't have one. I plan to send the premed committee rec along with my application for schools that give out secondaries at the end of July but for schools that give out early interviews AND require/recommend a committee letter that is the problem. I may just have to send it without one even if they require it with a sufficient excuse.Is an explanation saying that "although I submitted my premed letter request form on time and my premed committee chair is currently preparing to endorse me through a letter, I can't send it to this school because I would like to submit your app early but my premed committee can't submit till a later date." be a sufficient excuse?

 

[deleted445355]

I think I'm only going to send his rec for the schools whose secondary apps are due late July/early August and for the early interview schools, I'm just going to explain why I didn't get a committee letter. Hopefully they have a heart.

"Although my premed committee is in the process of preparing the rec for me, the large number of students at my school requesting a pre-med letter mandates a slow turn-around time, no matter how timely the request was. I am trying my best to work with the circumstances that I have, and I trust that my pre-med advisor is also trying his best to help everyone make their ends meet . I have nonetheless strived to have my own part complete and I would like to turn my application in early to remain competitive and express my sincerest interest in this school."